Tiny Bear!

Meet Opal! I just finished her today. She's the "older sister" of the bear (still in progress) that I mentioned in *this post*. I will finish the thread bear, but I was kind of disappointed that the thread is just so... stiff. I don't mind working with it or the tiny hooks, that's not a problem. I just don't care for how hard the thread is and how ... un-soft the bear is turning out. So I wanted to do one that was fuzzy.













So the other day I bought some Bernat Baby Fingering weight yarn in Antique White and used some Bernat Softee Baby in Pink that I had and started on her. I used a size 1 steel hook. So believe me, working with the sport weight yarn was a little tricky with that small a hook, but I managed. (The reason for the two different weight yarns is that the pattern calls for a thicker yarn or thread to be used for the colored pads of the feet.)

The delicate fingering weight yarn is so soft, but also, you can brush it to make the fuzz come out. (See photo below) On the right is a foot before it's been brushed, and on the left is the other foot after it had been brushed. I just used a small barrel round brush with stiff plastic bristles (the same thing I use for blow drying my hair every day) and brushed with and against the "grain" of the stitches until I had it fuzzy enough for my liking.













I LOVE how she turned out! And she's just tremendously soft.

Here's another view: you can see she's just 4 inches tall and will fit in the palm of your hand.


She's lovingly stuffed with polyfil, I hand embroidered her nose and "mouth", and sewed her eyes on. (I wish I could have gotten smaller eyes - this was as small as they had them at the Ben Franklin here.)

She's five-way jointed, so she's completely poseable! So cool! And she'll stand on her own.














I did alter one part of the pattern. The ears. The way the pattern had you make them, it seemed like they'd be little circles. It wasn't clear on how to join these tiny circles to make them look like semi-circle ears, so I just designed new ears. They turned out great and I think if I make another one of these, I'll definitely do "my" ears instead of the pattern ears.













I'm SO pleased with how my first teeny tiny bear came out!